Is there any specific fit issue i should be looking at. My glutes get crazy tight and it's extremely hard to loosen them back up. i use the foam roller but that will only help so much. something must be causing it...

I halped myselft by searhing on the internet, btw!In my case all the problems was caused by inappropriate seating angle and , especially in car. The car seat forced my back to seat in curved position.After that discovery, I took a break of cycling for 2 weeks and did some playing with car seat adjustments. But it requires some trying this, trying that

Forget your glutes/cycling for a minute, what's your hip flexibility like? Can you do a figure of four with the knee above hip level? What's your femur internal rotation like? Hip flexors are tight? (google all of these for self tests). Can you squat below parallel with good form, or have you ever tried? What about a lunge? Chance are that you're tight/weak somewhere you shouldn't and this is manifesting itself as what appears to be tight glutes. Never hurts to develop both basic movement patterns (squat, lunge, deadlift) and hip flexibility.

I went to physical therapy last year for shin splints (only happened when I ran) and tight calves and hamstrings. The tight hamstrings was really the root cause of it all. Besides stretching the biggest thing I did was work on hip strength. Exercises like the step down were very helpful. Now my small muscles aren't being constantly overpowered by my bigger muscles. It also means my knees track straight through the pedal stroke without the need of shims in my shoes (lower stack height ftw). So I'd agree with Courant

I agree about flexibility. The problem is when we feel tightness, we focus at that particular area. Many times, it is the opposing muscle/tendon/ligament that is contributing to the cause. When a muscle tightens, the opposing muscle has to relax/loosen. When the opposing muscles have a restricted range of motion, it hampers and puts a strain on the muscle.

For years, I had knee tightness/soreness after my arthroscopic surgery. It wasn't until I worked hard on increasing hamstring flexibility when my knee problems went away. I think cyclists tend to get stiff hip flexors and hamstrings.

i ain't an expert but have experience. I think your saddle position could need a look at. if too high your hip angle won't have an opportunity to flex enough therefore glutes/hams won't get lengthened then you ask them to perform at max effort at times. Maybe that could be it?? who knows.also when you are standing and i don't mean on your peddles it is also easy to forget to keep the knees soft. Try imagining your hips/pelvic girdle as a bowl of water. most people stand with locked knees so this forces the 'bowl' to tilt forward as if to spill water out the front. lower back is shortened as are glutes and hams trying to stop the upper torso from leaning forward just to maintain balance. if the strength of these 3 groups was nil then your torso would be falling to the ground like a puppet so think of the constant tension that these groups are under when standing with locked knees.remedy would be to make sure pelvic gurdle is flat and this will cause the knees to soften alleviating the need for constant tension in the posterior group to keep you upright.it is a mental habbit that needs constant awareness and also the quads will be tired for a while as they've not been used properly before to do this basic postural alignmnent.this may help, who knows

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